Of Broken Hearts and Tears

Chapter 39

Zayan slowly took off his wrist watch and carefully placed it on the bed side table. He was still standing awkwardly when he heard the door creak open and Maya stepped inside.

She was holding two mugs. She handed one mug to him.  

"Thanks." He said as their fingers brushed when she handed him the cup. He looked at the swirling green tea. He took a sip, but regretted it the next second as the hot liquid scalded his throat.

Maya's parents had convinced them to stay over for the night as it was late at night. He had been very reluctant about it, but Areesha's not-so-subtle glare had effectively shut his mouth.

Maya had been told to prepare the guest room for her mother-in-law. There was no question as to where Zayan was supposed to sleep as he was her husband. Of course he was going to sleep with her in her old bedroom.

Maya had felt a little hesitant about that. She wasn't sure why, but her bedroom was like personal territory and she felt like it reflected her personality. She had decorated it according to her own taste and it was a tad bit more colorful and flamboyant than the rest of the rooms in the house.

She still had the "I solemny swear that I'm up to no good" cushions from the time she had been obsessed with Harry Potter. She wasn't sure if he'd find that childish and stupid but she still loved them too much to throw them away. She uncomfortably cleared her throat, glaring at the cushions to disappear.

A lush maroon carpet with crisscross patterns on it adorned the wooden floor of her bedroom. It started at the foot of her queen-sized bed and was approximately twelve feet long.

Her study table with a revolving chair was at the far end of the room facing away from the bed. It was still lined up with textbooks; just as she had left it. Around her desk she had pasted motivational quotes on colorful sticky notes in her own curly handwriting.

Above her desk was a silver colored grandfather clock. It was a gift from her father on her birthday a long time ago. That clock had witnessed a lot of her breakdowns during her student life. She had spent a lot of time sitting at her study table and cursing the clock for running too fast.

The time on the clock had stopped at 4: 35. The time had stopped in her bedroom as well just like it had stopped for her in her life. Her bedroom was literally a relection of her personality. The more she stared at the clock, it looked like a sad, unhappy face. She blew out an inaudible sigh and shook her head herself. What was she thinking?

"Your room is... girlish." Zayan commented as he stared at the pink wallpapers making her smile involuntarily albeit embarrassed, and forget her previous train of thoughts.

"Yeah, I literally begged baba to have my room painted pink because he was so against it. When it was done, I didn't like it because it was a slightly darker shade of pink than I imagined. So we got these off-white curtains to balance it out." Maya reminisced with a glance at the curtains with a golden design imprinted in them. "He still teases me about it."

"So blue cake for Uzair and pink room for you. That makes you sexist." He commented making her chuckle and she realized that she had colored the icing of the cake blue.

"Oh God!" She let out a small chuckle. "That's so true, isn't it? I didn't even realize it."

"And you're quite observant." She commented.

"Well, it's a habit developed over time. Plus it comes in handy when you're a lawyer." He shrugged, carefully taking a small sip of the green tea testing the temperature.

He looked around and flipped around the medical textbooks on her bookshelf.

"This stuff looks scary." He commented as he opened a copy of 'Grays Anatomy' and flipped through it.